New Hampshire's White Mountains

The Kancamagus Scenic Byway stretches through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and was a perfectly placed west-east route for us to finish our continental crossing.

Having crossed over from Vermont in the early afternoon, our views were golden with the rays of late-afternoon sun. 

While pretty, we both commented that they weren't as "spectacular" as the guide books suggest, though to be fair the area is lauded for its autumnal colour and it's a long time until Fall over here.

But still, happy to prolong our time in this picturesque part of the world, we grabbed a campsite just east of the Sabbaday Falls Area and enjoyed a campfire beside our forested spot.

In the morning, we left Bessie in the Sabbaday Falls parking lot and took the short walk in.

The falls (and canyon) bend around a corner thanks to movement along a fault line having displaced the igneous dyke that is more easily eroded than the surrounding granite.

We enjoyed the falls from above and below for some time (and this truly was a VERY beautiful place) before we moved on to the Rocky Gorge Scenic Area.

After checking these falls out as well we drove further eastwards to the Albany covered bridge, which we parked near (and didn't drive under because it's only as wide and tall as was once necessary to drive a load of hay under; not a big Bessie-mobile).

We took out the river rats and set ourselves up on the opposite side of the river, floating and enjoying the calm.

Leaving the White Mountains (and New Hampshire) behind, we continued east into Maine and found a campsite at Sebago Lake State Park.

Here the boys played for hours through twilight and the next morning with friends they made in a fantastic lake-front playground.

Love in Vermont

It was when we moved to Hong Kong in 2004 that I started an enduring love affair that has survived until this day and I can't see myself being able to quit it any time soon.

Ben and Jerry's used to be the last shop in the IFC mall prior to boarding the ferry home (this was before we moved in to HK Island) and I have to say that we spent much more time together than I ever admitted to Nathan (though I'm certain he knew something was going on).

Having a Phish Food fettish was very hard to kick (though there were crazy moments of low-carb dieting where I didn't visit Ben and Jerry's for weeks - the horror!)

True love never dies though.

So here in Vermont, where Ben and Jerry's is based, what was a girl in love to do but introduce her children to the ice cream with a social conscience (oh yes, it tastes even better when you feel like you're doing the planet a favour).

We toured the factory, visited the Flavor Graveyard, played in the playground, sampled the wares (that goes without saying) and we left satisfied (for now at least).

Thanks for the memories boys!

Party time in the Adirondacks

Indy had been voicing for a while that his birthday in January was way too close to Christmas and had eventually twisted our arms into celebrating a 'Half Birthday'.

So today, on 28 July, we sang happy birthday, shared birthday cake and gave a present (a real watch; not a toy) to a special little boy who turned five and a half.

What we didn't know was that today was also the day of the triathlon being held in the Adirondack Mountains, a section of New York State we were checking out en route to the Atlantic coast.

The area is teeming with dark rock-strewn streams and lakes where the trees and moss grow right down to the edge of the water, giving it almost a Japanese garden vibe.

The quaint lakeside homes all sport Adirondack chairs (quite fitting really) out on their timber decks and pontoons.

We had thought the area nice but it wasn't until we hit the triathlon detours in the heart of the former Olympic host city of Lake Placid, sending us miles off our chosen course, that we encountered the loveliest territory of the day. Hooray for serendipity!

Highway 86, a road we hadn't been planning on driving at all, was by far the most scenic of the drive and so we later thanked the State Troopers in our minds though at the time of the redirection we'd been feeling a bit put out.

We camped the night in a city campsite at Port Henry and the boys played on the shores of Lake Champlain, bordering on Vermont, as the sun set on a great day.

The Mighty Niagara

It’s hard to keep your expectations under control when you’re visiting the world’s most famous set of waterfalls.

We were sure it would be beautiful without question, but we were also certain it was going to be a complete circus with thousands of tourists vying for limited space and with unpleasantly long queues.

The lengthy lines of cars we'd seen the previous afternoon vying to get over the bridges to America from the Canadian side had also put us off the idea of crossing the border for a different perspective.

So in an attempt to beat the crowds, we set an alarm (something we hadn’t done at any other time on our trip) so we could make sure we were at Niagara Falls State Park by around 9 a.m.

We found a parking spot for Bessie on Goat Island (only $10) and caught the $2 state park trolley over the American Rapids Bridge to the Maid of the Mist Ticket Office.

Once we'd boarded the Maid of the Mist ready to power out on to the Niagara River, we were feeling a bit like turkeys - not because we were wearing blue ponchos but we were wondering why we had gotten up so early when there wasn't a queue in sight!

And WOW!!! Niagara Falls truly is a very mighty set of falls. Very, very impressive. 

The Maid of the Mist was something we'd wanted to do as much for the fun of the boat ride and the sense of history as for the viewing of the falls themselves, but it really does a fantastic job of providing an up-close encounter with the thundering water.

The ponchos came in very handy.

We walked away feeling like we had gotten pretty much the same view we would have gotten from the Canadian side anyway.

After spending some time on the Observation Tower we were astounded at how big a queue had suddenly formed for both the Maid and for the Visitors Centre movie about adventurers who have attempted the falls in barrels, etc.

We skipped the movie (the boys never sit still anyway) and instead had a snack looking down at the American Rapids -- the turbulent water en route to the American Falls.

Such a huge expanse (breadth-wise) of swirling, churning rapids was something we'd never encountered before.

After walking back to Goat Island along the Pedestrian Bridge, we checked out the views from Luna Island before admiring Horseshoe Falls from Terrapin Point (though the view from the Maid of the Mist was much better than from the top).

Our last stop was at Three Sisters Islands, where we checked out the gushing Canadian Rapids -- the water heading down to Horseshoe Falls.

Bidding these amazing falls goodbye, we spent the afternoon driving around Lake Ontario and stopped the night at Westcott Beach State Park.

Chicago - more than just bricks

You've seen Chicago in all its glory in movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, My Best Friend's Wedding and Risky Business, but we feel that OUR whirlwind tour was far more comprehensive than anything we could see in the movies.

To begin with, there was the Lincoln Park Zoo.


Its collection of exotic animals is amazing.

Then of course, the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower), which at 442 metres was the tallest building in the world for 25 years.

It was also the tallest building in America until this year; it's just been eclipsed by One World Trade Centre.

But I have to say I was a little underwhelmed -- it really didn't feel that big to me.

The waterfront including Navy Pier was a huge hive of activity as you'd expect.

The Ferris Wheel was just crazy!

We didn't get to ride the "el" (the elevated train network) but saw the trains going back and forth constantly.

We had hoped to run into Oprah but sadly didn't. Nevertheless, there were plenty of other celebrities to spot.

Oh, and of course we visited the Legoland Discovery Centre which the boys had been looking forward to for AGES.






And who said touring Chicago is a nightmare for people in RVs?!

Good times stop rolling in middle America

We've crossed four state borders since our previous blog (from Colorado to Nebraska to Iowa to Illinois to Iowa).

While most of that time has been as exciting as watching corn grow (literally) there have been several stand-out moments:

1) 

Just shy of the Colorado-Nebraska border we were in a campground beside a correctional facility (yes, only the best will do) when a team of police cars arrived with lights and guns and action and tore around the campground shining lights into all of the RVs. 

We watched them prowling around for half an hour before they took away a guy in cuffs from the RV two doors down from us. 

Better than Cable TV!

2)

In Iowa we saw the biggest truck stop in the whole wide world or probably even the universe!

'How do they know it's the biggest one in the world?' I hear you ask...

I don't know, but I'm sure we can trust that the marketing team behind the slogan conducted an accurate worldwide study measuring truck stop size before issuing that very bold statement. 

And it's in the Lonely Planet so it must be true.

3)

Not far into Illinois and on the interstate, all hell broke loose in Bessie's engine and we limped off an exit.

We would later describe the noise to our roadside assistance as being a bit like a hiss of radio static that quickly became this massive bumpity bump bump.

Strangely they weren't able to diagnose the problem over the phone, even with our detailed explanation so we spent a couple of hours waiting for a tow truck. 

We arrived at the mechanic's (back across the border in Iowa) right on closing time but they kindly let us spend the night in their car lot (inside Bessie) and even hooked us up with some electricity.

This morning the problem has been diagnosed - a broken drive shaft! - so poor Bessie's not so tough after all.

There were big sighs of relief when we found out the warranty covers her repairs and now we're relaxing at a local motel while we wait for the parts to arrive from Chicago tomorrow.

We are going to give the boys their first bath in 113 days!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

If there was an award for the most deep, narrow, steep canyon, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison would win it.

Standing at the southern edge of this National Park you can clearly see all of the features of the northern side directly in front of you.

It's incredibly disconcerting that separating you from that northern side is a near-vertical drop the height of two Empire State Buildings.

The sun rarely shines into the depths of the canyon, giving it its dark, foreboding blackness.

The cragginess of the fins and needles of rock jutting out here, there and everywhere lend it an underworld vibe.

With names like "Dragon Point" and "Devils Lookout" the area's earliest explorers clearly thought the same.

Eons ago, before the rock was exposed to the elements and the Gunnison River eroded it down into a deep chasm, magma squeezed its way into cracks and today those igneous intrusions make the cliff faces look like someone has gone nuts wielding a massive paintbrush.

The "Painted Wall" visible from Chasm Viewpoint is one of the features of the South Rim Road accessible from highway 347.

We spent several hours on the Rim Road, walking out to viewpoints and viewing the canyon from different angles, before settling in at a campsite at the South Rim Campground.

Deer and their fauns were wandering freely through the campground and nibbling at foliage close to Bessie, giving us a lovely up-close natural encounter.

I took a stroll out along the Rim Rock Trail back to the Visitors Centre we'd visited earlier, but with a storm rolling in, decided to go no further.

Sure enough, we were hit by a massive storm and hailed on (again!) but the hailstones have so far luckily been the size of small pebbles and haven't done any damage to our tough Bessie.

The next morning, back at the Visitors Centre, Nath filled out a hiker's registration form and Indy got his junior ranger badge.

It was here we waited while Nath took on the near-vertical Gunnison Route down to the river and back again.

Nath described the unmaintained trail (on which the parks service only allows 15 people a day) as a massive scramble.

It drops 549 metres over one mile. He said he was on his hands and knees for most of the way back up.

Plus there's the danger that people above you can dislodge rocks that tumble down and knock you out or worse.

Sounds fun right? ; )

All in all, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a dizzying natural spectacle.

Driving East, leaving the National Park behind, we encountered quite scenic mesas, farmland and reservoirs.

San Juan Skyway and Mesa Verde

In the south west of Colorado sits the San Juan Skyway, a loop of several roads that connects historical sites, a National Park, ski fields and incomparable views of the San Juan Mountains.

After a play in the park at Ridgway, we took the 550 south through the town of Ouray and then up, up, up beside the Uncompahgre Gorge towards the Red Mountain Pass, so called because the three mountains at the top are Red Mountain 1, 2 and 3.

And they really are RED!! A vivid orange-red.

The river flowing back towards Ridgway is a ridiculous shade of this orange-red.

Perhaps that's natural, given the mountains, or perhaps it's the result of a long history of mining in the region.

The century-old broken remnants of that history are visible all over the hillsides and valleys.

Silverton was only a short detour away and is the end point of the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad which we were lucky enough to see chuffing out of town en route to Durango (and several times again as we raced it south).

Silverton retains the character of its late 19th century origins with its dirt streets and character buildings set amongst the San Juan Mountains.

Through falling rain we crossed over two passes with views of the West Needle Mountains and Grenadier Range and then headed down in altitude towards Durango.

There we stayed at an RV Park and in the morning headed west towards Mesa Verde National Park.

This part of the loop (along the 160) is not as scenic as the rest but it's worth the drive to get to the world-heritage listed Mesa Verde which protects the cliff-side and mesa-top dwellings of the original Puebloan people.

The drive out to view the major sites takes you up onto the top of the mesa and across the top of it with vantage points out to the surrounding region (here, you're very close to the four corners - Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico).

With a storm brewing in the East we checked out the Spruce Tree House (a self-guided tour of a cliffside dwelling).

We had first attempted to watch a movie in the nearby Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum, but its slow pace led to the kind of wriggling noisiness that messes with other peoples' experiences and so we quickly departed.

We took Bessie on the Mesa Top Loop drive, stopping in to view the Square Tower House and Sun Temple and looking across to Cliff Palace (which can only be toured with a ranger-guided group - not something suitable for our little monkeys).

On our way back up towards the national park campground we stopped in at Cedar Tree Tower and the Far View Sites which preserve mesa-top sites.

We found a great open campsite at the Morefield Campground within the National Park and not long after, the heavens opened and doused us with heavy rain.

The next day we headed north on the 145, still not in sensationally beautiful territory, but after a play at a fantastic playground at Dolores, the scenery improved greatly and the road crossed over Lizard Head Pass, offering views of more vivid red-orange mountains.

We took a detour to the ski village of Telluride, thinking we would only stop in for a quick look, and instead were surprised to find a town campground right in the heart of it, with a vacant site beside a flowing creek.

Telluride is a very cool ski town. They have free gondola rides up to the top (St Sophie Station) and down the other side (to Mountain Resort Station) plus free bus shuttles around town.

Beside the town campground was a sensational playground and skate park (which we made use of) and several sports fields (where Indy avidly watched a local game of baseball).

When we asked the kids what they liked most, they both agreed the ride on the 'bongola' (gondola) was very cool. 

The next day, we crossed back to Ridgway and overnighted in Montrose.

The Epic Uncompahgre

Leaving Grand Junction, the town closest to Colorado National Monument, we decided to drive the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic Byway rather than the main road and were completely blown away by the beauty and nearly flooded off the road!

While moderately scenic in the beginning, the Unaweep Canyon became more beautiful the further west we ventured, but as we entered the brilliant red Dolores River Canyon just before the town of Gateway we were gob-smacked.

This place is unbelievably beautiful!

Deep red cliffs tower either side of the road, becoming even more narrow as you travel south from Gateway.

That's when the freak hailstorm hit us, and unable to see in front or behind, we pulled over to the side of the road.

We thought it was great fun, watching the white icy pebbles bouncing off the red earth, although the sound of the hail hitting Bessie's roof was so loud the kids had to hold their hands to their ears.

We were talking about the places inside the RV that the kids could possibly hide if ever we were caught in a really bad storm when suddenly we found ourselves in an actual emergency.

The wall of rock beside us suddenly started gushing a river of red mud on to the roadside. The muddy water was closing in on us at a rate of a foot every couple of seconds.

I yelled to Nath who grabbed the keys and quickly drove us forward out of what would have been at best a serious bogging.

From a safe distance away, we waited out the rest of the storm.

As the skies cleared we ventured back out on to the road and noticed how the bluey green Dolores River now had a ribbon of red through its centre.

Not even one minute south on the road we encountered a mudslide and felt even luckier that we'd managed to avoid a minor disaster.

A plough truck quickly cleared a lane and we continued on our way with the beautiful canyon becoming more and more narrow with every mile.

At one point, there was nothing to be seen but exquisite canyon walls in every direction.

As the road climbed through the sedimentary layers, the nature of the canyon changed, offering a fresh new look to the road every few miles.

We came across a section of the 'hanging flume', a famous engineering innovation for the time, which carried water long distances for mining purposes.

Remnants of the flume remain, continuing to cling to the canyon walls over a century after they were erected.

Leaving the 141 for the 145, the road followed the San Miguel River in places and it was here, at the waters edge that we found a free campsite in a forest site and spent the night not far from Placerville.